'A wedding readers won't be able to resist crashing' - Kirkus The Carmichaels and Grahams have gathered for a wedding. Plans are being made according to the wishes of the bride's late mother, who left behind The Notebook: specific instructions for every detail of her youngest daughter's future nuptials. Everything should be falling into place for the beautiful event - but in reality, things are far from perfect. In the days leading up to the wedding, love will be questioned, scandals will arise, and hearts will be broken . . . ************** Praise for Beautiful Day 'A perfect summer read' - The Picky Girl 'No other author screams summer read more than Elin Hilderbrand. Her novels ooze saucy, sandy, sunny secrets. This was such a fun book to read' - The Book Bag ************** Further praise for Elin Hilderbrand 'A gritty and moving read that oozes plenty of drama' - Heat 'A gem of a summer read with a glamorous location, elite lifestyle, and Hilderbrand's appealing take on the constant stress that fills the lives of women everywhere' - Booklist 'This book was a great read - you really care what happens to the characters. Perfect holiday reading. I didn't want to put it down' - Candis 'Touching and uplifting' - U Magazine

Since the late nineteenth century, religiously themed books in America have been commercially popular yet scorned by critics. Working at the intersection of literary history, lived religion, and consumer culture, Erin A. Smith considers the largely unexplored world of popular religious books, examining the apparent tension between economic and religious imperatives for authors, publishers, and readers. Smith argues that this literature served as a form of extra-ecclesiastical ministry and credits the popularity and longevity of religious books to their day-to-day usefulness rather than their theological correctness or aesthetic quality. Drawing on publishers' records, letters by readers to authors, promotional materials, and interviews with contemporary religious-reading groups, Smith offers a comprehensive study that finds surprising overlap across the religious spectrum--Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish, liberal and conservative. Smith tells the story of how authors, publishers, and readers reconciled these books' dual function as best-selling consumer goods and spiritually edifying literature. What Would Jesus Read? will be of interest to literary and cultural historians, students in the field of print culture, and scholars of religious studies.

The Publishers Weekly bestseller list started on May 3, 1919; the New York Times Book Review list began on October 6, 1935. Though the lists do not always reflect the best in American publishing, they do offer a myriad of insights into popular culture. All books that have appeared on any of the Publishers Weekly or New York Times lists are included in this comprehensive reference work. Arranged alphabetically by author and then by book, each entry includes the book's title, publisher, lists on which it appeared and dates it debuted thereon, peak position, and total number of weeks on the lists. Information is provided for hardcover, paperback, and other special editions when appropriate.

Examines the dramatic changes that occurred in children's literature during the twentieth century, the growth and impact of major publishing houses, the influence of key publishing figures, and the contributions of pioneering editors, educators, and librarians.

Over the five decades of her writing career Willa Cather responded to, and entered into dialogue with, shifts in the terrain of American life. These cultural encounters informed her work as much as the historical past in which much of her writing is based. Cather was a multifaceted cultural critic, immersing herself in the arts, broadly defined: theater and opera, art, narrative, craft production. Willa Cather and the Arts shows that Cather repeatedly engaged with multiple forms of art, and that even when writing about the past she was often addressing contemporary questions. The essays in this volume are informed by new modes of contextualization, including the increasingly popular view of Cather as a pivotal or transitional figure working between and across very different cultural periods and by the recent publication of Cather's correspondence. The collection begins by exploring the ways Cather encountered and represented high and low cultures, including Cather's use of "racialized vernacular" in Sapphira and the Slave Girl. The next set of essays demonstrates how historical research, often focusing on local features in Cather's fiction, contributes to our understanding of American culture, from musicological sources to the cultural development of Pittsburgh. The final trio of essays highlights current Cather scholarship, including a food studies approach to O Pioneers! and an examination of Cather's use of ancient philosophy in The Professor's House. Together the essays reassess Cather's lifelong encounter with, and interpretation and reimagining of, the arts.